Tough times for mixer wagon maker
Up to 50 jobs look likely to be axed at Irish mixer wagon manufacturer Keenan, who have weathered the post-Covid storm with some difficulties that saw production and profitability compromised.
Contemplating what this year’s dry will mean for your feed supply in late winter and early spring?
Undersow oats and/or Italian ryegrass now, and you can create a bit of a safety net for calving if the effects of a tough season linger on through winter.
Our window for sowing is closing fast as temperatures drop. But it’s not too late to quickly stitch in next season’s crop paddocks with oats, Italian ryegrass, or both.
Results will depend on the weather, and this approach may not suit all farms.
The one thing we do know for certain, however, is that if the seed is not in the ground there’s no way it can grow!
If you don’t find yourself facing a feed pinch in late winter and early spring, extra cool-season growth from oats and Italian ryegrass will help restore depleted supplements.
If you do run short, that growth could be invaluable for calving. Hattrick oats and Tabu+ Italian ryegrass both have the potential to deliver a bulk of quality, cool season feed, just when you might really need it.
The beauty of oats in a situation like this is that they will establish and grow at lower temperatures than ryegrass. Likewise, Tabu+ will out-grow perennial ryegrass in cool conditions.
But neither of them contains anti-freeze! So if you are going to include this in your drought recovery plan, the sooner seed goes in the ground, the better.
Undersowing is fast, cost-effective and relatively easy. You can stitch in as little or as much as you want.
Doing so at this time of the year is not without risk. But leaving paddocks as they are in the hope they recover enough growth to get you through lambing and calving is risky, too.
You can hedge your bets by undersowing just a few paddocks.
• Sharon Morton is a pasture systems agronomist at Barenburg.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Two major red meat sector projects are getting up to a combined $1.7 million in funding from the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).
Angus Barr and Tara Dwyer of The Wandle, Lone Star Farms in Strath Taieri have been named the Regional Supreme Winners at the Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Dunedin.
OPINION: The distress that the politicians and bureaucrats are causing to the people of Wairoa and the wider Tairāwhiti is unforgivable.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.